


Cura and Piercethrough

by TSwiftEliot



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Challenge: Sport Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2016, F/F, final fantasy tactics advance au, mentoring, tough love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 14:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8289560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TSwiftEliot/pseuds/TSwiftEliot
Summary: Umi is good with a bow, bad with a rapier, and not sure how good she is with Eli.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/gifts).



> Understanding this fic is very dependent on your familiarity with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, especially the job system and certain abilities. I'm considering adding notes of FFTA specifics at the end, if people want that.
> 
> The original prompt asked for something showing Eli's colder side, so her language and training methods may come across as harsh; please consider your own comfort level with this before reading.

Umi's foil bends against the rockbeast's shell, up, a loop in the shape of a horseshoe. Or, she recalls, the shape of a compact tight-drawn bow. The monster bites back, raw mouth scraping her unarmored arms and legs. A fencer's joints are unobstructed by heavy armor. She does not take hits. She is fast.

Umi is not a fencer. Well she is, but she shouldn't be. The rockbeast cracks her ankle and Umi goes down, kneeling in pain. "Senpai!" she chokes.

From behind her, magic blooms up, a small cold gust. It realigns her muscles, bones, and seals her scraped skin shut. Healing magic smells different to everybody. Umi thinks it smells like green tea.

"You are an embarrassment to the viera," Eli tells her, from an outcrop a few yards away. "Learn to dodge."

"I can dodge," Umi lets out hoarsely, "arrows-"

Eli ghosts up behind her and tells her, coldly, "No more hiding on mountaintops. Assassins work up close."

Umi poisons the rockbeast and it does more damage than her rapier.

+++

Eli is very kind when they are off the battlefield, really. But she demands perfection in combat. Umi tries to appeal to her sense of efficiency.

"I could be a sniper right now," she says. "I could be doing real damage. Please, please, senpai, let me be useful to you."

Eli's eyes thin as she smiles. "I can deal enough damage on my own. You-" she cups Umi's cheek with one hand - "are an investment piece. You will make a fine assassin, and I trust you with it."

Umi leans into the hand sadly. It still smells like green tea, the faintly lingering scent of white magic that Eli keeps around. Eli heals more than she assassinates, when she is overlooking Umi's training. Umi would feel bad about dragging her senpai away from her true purpose, but sometimes, she sees Eli cup her own hands and inhale after casting a spell.

+++

"You're doing quite well," Eli says from across the water, casting cura near Umi one more time. Umi's gotten the hang of swarmstrike, but she is being kept as a fencer until she can properly dodge. Umi has to learn to be fast, to finish an enemy off in as few turns as she can.

"Keep it up and you'll earn the right to use a bow again soon." Eli means as an assassin, of course. If Umi was a sniper she could use a bow right now, and be on the other side of the river next to Eli, too.

Umi is glad healing magic smells like green tea. White magic can realign her spine and mend her clavicle; can stop a bloody nose and reattach a broken nail. But magic does not heal the way her hands shake under Eli's scrutiny. Adrenaline, in whatever laws govern the domain of healing spells, is not malady enough to fix. Magic cannot calm a girl's frayed nerves, but hot tea sometimes does.

+++

Today's monster is a lamia. It does not hit Umi this time. It is actually closer to Eli.

Even assassins take blows from behind sometimes.

The lamia is already near its defeat, slumped over on the curl of its own tail, when it slaps Eli with an ability she can't easily dodge. The wail she lets out is unfamiliar to Umi's long ears, as is the sight, when she turns around, of the assassin on her knees.

Umi cannot reach all the way; Eli likes to keep her distance from Umi on the battlefield, letting her draw most of the hits while staying just within healing range. White magic does not feel the effects of gravity the way Umi's legs do. The closest she can get is just in front of Eli, standing on a ledge below.

"Are you trying to help me," coughs Eli, through some blood. "If you think I can't handle myself, you have gone soft in the head. Go stand with your back to a rock so nothing can hit you like it hit me." Umi softly appreciates her senpai, trying to make a lesson out of this, as she disregards orders and draws her weapon out.

The flamberge is a weightier sword in Umi's hands, a gift from Nozomi-senpai to a girl who preferred to keep her distance from foes. It is still thin, but thick enough not to bend on impact.

"Senpai," Umi says, "what does white magic smell like to you?"

"Marzipan," Eli answers from the ground. "A candy my mother used to bring home."

Smiling, with her mouth but not her eyes, Umi says, "I'm terribly sorry about this," and thinks silently, I hope you'll be proud of me now.

Umi's sword reaches the lamia.


End file.
